Tennis Participation In U.S. Grows For Sixth Consecutive Year

Patrick McEnroe (R), seen right here commenting for the TV broadcast of the 2025 US Open Tennis Championships with brother John McEnroe, not too long ago spoke to me concerning the persevering with improve in tennis participation within the U.S. (Photograph by Jean Catuffe/GC Photographs)

GC Photographs

What goes up, like a tennis ball, should come down, proper? Effectively, that hasn’t actually utilized to tennis participation, although. At the very least, not but because the begin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the sixth consecutive yr, the variety of tennis participant within the U.S. has grown, based on the recently-released 2026 U.S. Tennis Participation Report, kind of like Carlos Alcaraz’s hair every day of the 2025 U.S. Open after he had shaved his head. Final yr, 2025, U.S. tennis participation bounced up additional by 1.6 million gamers to 27.3 million People. That’s round a six p.c improve in the event you don’t have an abacus or sufficient fingers helpful to depend and calculate.

Patrick McEnroe, former skilled tennis participant and captain of the U.S. Davis Cup workforce and present tennis broadcaster and co-director of the John McEnroe Tennis Academy, referred to as this “a increase for tennis the final 5 years.” He instructed me about how the JMTA courts on Randall’s Island in New York Metropolis “went from 20 to 29 courts and from 4 to eight day-after-day, each courtroom is full of 4 to 5 youngsters per courts. So, not solely are adults taking part in, however we’ve been in a position to entice much more youngsters and preserve them in it.”

Since 2019 U.S. Tennis Participation Has Grown By 54 P.c

Yeah, tennis has been making fairly a racket all through the 2020s. It started with nature kind of dropping a deuce on everybody and the U.S. being ill-prepared to deal with it. In March 2020 when the extreme acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 was spreading in an uncontrolled vogue, the U.S. needed to scramble to flatten the curve—do not forget that?—and purchase time to determine what to do. With no clear technique from the U.S. authorities, the default was to have plenty of issues simply shut down form of indefinitely on the time.

I wrote about all that in Forbes in 2020 and the way with no actual steering on how People might keep bodily lively and socializing, tennis served up a possibility to do each whereas sustaining sufficient distance from one another to stop virus transmission. “I believe everyone knows why within the pandemic [tennis participation grew], as a result of there wasn’t quite a bit that individuals might do sporting-wise and exercise clever,” McEnroe recalled. “Tennis was one of many sports activities that individuals might play.” That yr noticed a 22 p.c improve in tennis participation as I covered in Forbes.

However whilst society bounced again from 2020, tennis participation didn’t. No it stored bouncing ahead. And I stored writing about this outstanding spin on issues, in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. That’s as a result of this has been one of many persevering with feel-good tales from the COVID-19 pandemic. The consequence has been tennis participation rising by a whopping 54 p.c since 2019. These six consecutive years of progress have added practically 10 million gamers on this nation.

4.9 Million Picked Up Tennis Racquets For The First Time In 2025

The report was based mostly on responses to the Bodily Exercise Council Examine on Sports activities and Bodily Exercise and the PLAY Examine, previously referred to as the Participation and Engagement Examine. These two research include surveying every year a complete of round 36,000 folks within the U.S. Survey responses additionally confirmed that 4.9 million picked up tennis racquets for the primary time in 2025. This was 9 p.c extra racquet newbies than there have been in 2024.

Oh, and the surveys confirmed that what occurred on the courtroom tended to remain on the courtroom as effectively. Most tennis gamers have stored on dropshotting quite than dropping out of the game. Round 20.7 million gamers stayed with the game. That’s a ten p.c improve from 2024. There additionally appeared to be many completely satisfied returns with 1.7 million gamers coming again to the game after having been away for greater than a yr.

Then there are the tennis curious. An estimated 25 million People who at the moment don’t play tennis do have quite a bit curiosity in taking part in. They could not have the balls or the racquets or no matter to take action proper now. However they may sometime add to the entire.

Extra Tennis Participation May Imply Extra Well being Advantages For Extra Folks

What occurred in 2025 implies that the U.S. Tennis Affiliation is in good place to succeed in its purpose of 35 million gamers by 2035. Brian Vahaly, Chairman of the Board and Interim Co-CEO, USTA, had talked to me beforehand about this purpose. He had additionally used the moniker “world’s healthiest sport” when describing tennis.

Now everytime you use the descriptor world’s prime something—with the attainable exception of world’s finest meals, which is sushi— you might get a debate. Nonetheless, there’s no denying that tennis can deliver a wide range of well being advantages and may be performed by folks of practically all ages.

“I can’t let you know how many individuals I see that come out, you already know, of their 70s, 80s, and 90s, they usually’re nonetheless taking part in tennis,” McEnroe associated. “I’m taking part in truly with a lady subsequent Monday whom I do know from the theater, and he or she’s been taking part in and he or she’s going to show 97. Yearly the previous 5 years on her birthday, I’m going into the town and I play together with her and her coach and her good friend at her membership.”

The physique and thoughts advantages of tennis make the tennis increase actually a feel-good story, no strings connected. McEnroe emphasised, “You must just about use each a part of your physique and your mind due to all these elements, monitoring the ball, seeing the ball, connecting with the ball, timing, consciousness and clearly, motion.”

Tennis Participation Continues To Develop Extra And Extra Various

Now, one historic picture of tennis on this nation that the USTA has been attempting to dispel is that tennis is someway a sport for “the elites.” I’ve already written about among the USTA’s packages to deliver larger range into the game. However there have been different efforts too reminiscent of what the JMTA been doing. “Our charitable wing that’s a part of the Academy has principally raised cash for scholarships to take tennis into the native faculties within the South Bronx and in Harlem which are near Randalls Island,” McEnroe defined. “A few of these youngsters find yourself in our common Johnny Mac Tennis Academy.” He added, “After I take a look at the background of the youngsters in our program, I might say it’s a fairly wide selection of children now. There are African-American youngsters, Asian youngsters and Japanese European youngsters that get into tennis. We’re in New York Metropolis, so we’re attempting to herald as various a background of children as we are able to. However at all times you’ll be able to at all times do extra.”

The survey outcomes counsel that packages across the nation are working to extend range in participation. Final yr noticed will increase within the variety of Black/African People taking part in tennis by over 450,000 (14 p.c), Hispanic/Latino gamers by over 550,000 (12 p.c) and Asian/Pacific Islander gamers by over 260,000 (10 p.c). As you will have seen, these numbers are larger proportion will increase than the general participant improve. And the game courted 1.1 million extra ladies in 2025 than in 2024. That’s a ten p.c improve from 2024.

It’s now clear that tennis participation is on the up and up. And extra folks from completely different backgrounds are having a ball.